Mass Effect: Brother's Keeper
by ZOLTAR-XD
Summary: Reapers, Collectors, The New Council, these were only small headaches compared to what Shepard would endure. You would think twin brothers on her team could be an asset, and it would be; if they didn't try to kill each other. She just hopes they can put aside their differences and work together, or humanity might be in more danger than she originally thought.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Alright in light of the new Mass Effect coming out me and my co-author (and brother) ethanisawesome55 have decided to create what you see before you. But I'm pretty sure you've gathered that so I'll shut up and let you read.

Disclaimer: I don't have to do this right? I mean it should be self explanatory...

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 _Lieutenant Foster please report to the bridge._

Groggily, Pollux lifted himself from his bunk, last mission had taken a lot out of the powerful biotic. Liara had told him to sleep late at least if he wasn't going to take the day off, which he wasn't. However, seems like commander Shepard had other plans for him today. In his tired haze he almost didn't notice the Turian standing in front of him clad in blue C-Sec armor. "Hey you ok? T'Soni sent me down here to make sure you could actually walk." Memories of yesterday's operation slowly returned in detail; being pinned down by some heavy Geth artillery, getting shot in the shoulder, nearly exploding his Adept biotic implant when he took down a Geth ship. Feeling a twinge of pain in the back of his neck where the damaged amp sat, Pollux let out a sigh, "Yeah I'm fine for the most part. Help me up will ya?" Guarus and Pollux had grown to be very close friends ever since their first encounter when Pollux nearly put a sword through him. Oh yes, Pollux has a sword. It resembles an ancient roman gladius, and even though it may seem impractical, any enemy that has underestimated him doesn't live long. Guarus helped him for a while until he felt strong enough to carry himself, "I still can't believe your metabolism. You almost cleared out the damn mess hall!" Guarus laughed as he punched his human friend in the arm. Biotics need to consume a lot of calories to use their powers or they'll just burn out, and after his big display yesterday he had to eat an insane amount of food just to stay conscious enough to undergo the biotic repair. But even then it was evident he needed a new one, he was probably going to buy a stronger one to keep up with his powerful demand. And maybe a cool new sword, and some ramen.

Eventually they made it to the bridge, Pollux never got to see it because he wasn't ever stationed here but when Saren was at large this place was more busy than Citadel traffic. Now, it was boring and slow, the life and excitement sucked out of each crew member because the council (more like Udina) has Commander Shepard running around the terminus system hunting down the last of the Geth. As they approached they both noticed a very agitated Commander Shepard standing behind Joker while XO-Presley paced back and forth reading the same scan over and over again. "Commander, you called for me?" Commander Jane Shepard is the most terrifying woman in the universe, well to Pollux anyways. He idolized her as she moved through the ranks of the Alliance Navy and she became an inspiration to him and his older brother. The thought of him sent a sour taste into his mouth and he quickly removed the thought from his mind. She turned around and flashed a quick, but tired smile. "Glad to see you on your feet Lieutenant, I want you to go see Liara down in the medical bay. She has some amps to help you replace the one you nearly blew out yesterday." Pollux saluted and began his casual stroll through the ship to meet Liara T'Soni.

Dr.T'Soni was the daughter of two Asari Matriarchs, a damn good Prothean Archeologist, and one of the only other people Pollux could really spar with using biotics; especially after what happened with Guarus one day. The door to the medical bay slid open as he walked in which showed and Liara turned away looking at some medical papers. "You think he's strong enough? I don't want to injure him more than he's injured himself." Chakwas said as she skimmed over the papers. Liara pointed to a part of her papers and responded, "It will work, he has a strong Element Zero signature for starters and I've never seen a human with such biotic capabilities." He smirked at the compliment, even though she wasn't really directing it at him. It was just nice to hear appreciation of his abilities."Ahem, you guys needed to see me?"He coughed, both shot around to him and Liara profusely apologized for not noticing him before while Chakwas immediately started scanning him and checking vitals. "So I was told you damaged your biotic amp correct?" Chakwas said as she scanned the area where the amp was located. Pollux replied with the usual "yes ma'am" and told them about his last mission, and made sure to highlight the parts where he ripped apart the Geth with his abilities. As he talked Liara stood with her hand on her chin, as if to be analyzing what he was saying. "Ok, so it sounds like you've been putting a lot of unnecessary strain on your biotics. Your amp would've given out eventually because of this, but since you decided to overuse it on the last mission, you sped up the process. Now we need to remove it before you damage yourself further." Liara said as she paced back and forth. Panic started to rise in his chest as he retorted, "Whoa no way, you're not taking my amp out." She quickly raised her hands defensively, "We have to, but we have something to replace it. We've been working on a hybrid amp that should be strong enough to take the abuse you give it. It's a mix between some asari amps and human ones, but we're unsure if it's too strong for you." Pollux accidentally let out a snort, "You've seen what I can do. I think I can handle it." This did little to reassure however. "Yes but every time a human attempts asari amps it ends rather poorly. The less I see you in my office the better, even though you've seemingly made your way in here more times than Shepard even." But the asari had a different opinion, "I believe he can do it. But I won't give you false hope. You can die if it doesn't work, so it's your choice. It's either this procedure or you keep blowing out amps, which is almost as dangerous." Pollux, for once, was quite literally at a loss for words. However, fate would have

him postpone his answer….

 _Everyone to your battle stations! This is not a drill, repeat this is not-_

The call was interrupted by a violent rattle of the ship followed by an explosion in the mess hall near them. The explosion sent all three of them into the nearby wall, giving Pollux an even worse throbbing headache than before. "Is everyone alright?" He said as he helped Chakwas up, she was bleeding moderately from her head. Liara was already completely outfitted in combat armor, helmet in hand.

 _Abandon ship! Repeat, abandon ship!_

Joker shouted from the intercom. Liara quickly put on her helmet and started to help them escort Chakwas, "Take her to a pod and get out of here!" While fighting to stay on their feet Pollux defiantly responded, "Screw that! After we take her I'm getting suited up and helping." They made it to the pods and carefully placed the good doctor in with a few other crew members, "Don't be stupid! I'm going to find Shepard and if you're not in one of these pods so help me goddess!" Another explosion rocked the ship and a crew member got caught under some debris, "No! I'm helping, go find Shepard! No one is getting left behind today and god knows she'll be the last one off this ship if we let her, I'll get as many in the pods as I can!" In a mad dash, not waiting to hear the asari protest, he ran over to the pinned crew member. "It's no use! It won't budge!" She yelled, but Pollux knew what he had to do. He focused on his amp, and in the molecules of the metal pinning her to the ground and used _warp_ to weaken it enough so that it would break and she'd be free. The normal sharp pain he was accustomed to using amps was replaced with an excruciatingly burning sensation, his vision got fuzzy around the corners but it worked, both him and the woman were surprised. "Foster!" Shepard yelled from behind him, he went to look at them but fell to the floor in an instant with stars at the edges of his vision. "Come on! Let's go!" Shepard yelled as she effortlessly picked him up and moved to the pods. "Joker won't leave the cockpit!" T'Soni yelled from the pod; cursing, Shepard was about to put Pollux in the pod when he resisted, "I'll get him Commander." He clearly was in no shape to go save Joker, so Shepard had only one other choice. "Sorry kid, I'll meet you back in the Citadel." And she threw him in just before it shut and jettisoned into space. The pain in his head was far too great to protest, so he submitted and slept till they got picked up. But the thing was, he wasn't going to be seeing Shepard back at the Citadel.

For now….

 _3 Months Later_

 _Lieutenant Foster, please report to the communications room_

Castor sat in the corner of the mess hall, alone, eating his lunch when he heard the intercom. No one dared to sit next to him, not after what happened to a recruit who thought he had the balls to sit next to The Illusive Man's Angel of Death, under a special call sign, Hades. That is what he did anyways, whoever he needed killed or silenced he always called on one of his favorite science projects. Castor had subdermal clocking devices implanted in his skin, connected to his nervous system to become virtually invisible on command. This made him an effective, regretful killer. Castor was able to remember the faces and names of each target, their hobbies, addresses, and what food they liked. Although he did not enjoy being a killer, he knew it was necessary for the good of humankind, being that Cerberus was the only organization that actually cared about humans. Castor pondered all this as he made his way to speak with The Illusive Man.

As he passed a small group of Cerberus soldiers he heard a faint whisper, "Freak." His reflexes snapped to the noise as he easily picked out the unlucky fool from the group. The small group fell back in surprise as they saw him throw their compatriot into the wall and hold him by the neck against the it, Castor enjoyed the pained look on his face for a moment before coldly staring at the others. "So, anyone else want to say something?" The only noise was the resisting and choking of this poor, but stupid man. They foolishly taunted him when they thought he couldn't hear them, but some actually believe he was a demon with eyes in the back of his head. However, the woman behind him would quickly prove that theory wrong, a strong biotic push released his grasp and sent him rolling to the floor. But just as quick he was on his feet, pistol aimed at one of Cerberus's most important, dangerous woman. "Miranda, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She harbored some pity for Castor, but would never show it to him. Both had been subjected to the testing, both made to be better than the average grunt, both made into killers. Instead of showing any pity or remorse, she showed bitter resentment, "Quit dawdling, after you meet with The Illusive Man see me in the hangar." She elegantly strode beside him, his pistol's aim never wavering. She leaned in and whispered, "If you keep aiming that at me, I'll break you in half." Both knew that in everyone's eyes they matched each other in strength and skill, but she had wits and experience where he had a natural killers instinct; in the end he knew she could do exactly that. Without another word she left, and Castor let out an animalistic growl he didn't realize he was keeping which scared off the rest of the operatives and left him all alone to make the trek in peace.

The communications room was top of the line, like most Cerberus tech, and seemed like an empty room, but, when activated, gave real time 3D imaging with no lag whatsoever. The room activated and went pitch black and an image of a chair turned away from Castor appeared, the cigarette smoke digitally visible. The chair slowly, and quite dramatically, turned to reveal the infamous Illusive Man as he stared into Castor with bright blue eyes. "So, do you harbor some sort of disdain for my other operatives or are you just not a people person?" Castor responded, careful not to show any emotion, "The latter, sir. You needed to speak to me?" An amused smile escaped him as he responded. "Yes, I'm gathering up a team of scientists and engineers to be the crew under the command of an old soldier. Her ship, you may find familiar, is the Normandy. You're under the command of my finest operative, Miranda Lawson. She will brief you on the situation." This was not going to go well, Castor has a history of not playing well with others. "Will there be anything else sir?" The amused look on The Illusive Man's face only annoyed Castor more, "Do try to follow orders, for once." With that the communications room deactivated and Castor headed to his quarters first to get suited up. He was equipped with Cerberus Armor designed for shock troops, with a few homemade enhancements. Like motorized joints for mobility and extra strength, a shield booster for emergencies, and last but certainly not least was a thermal cloak that hid him from sensors. Now, his favorite part, the guns. Typically he would've bought different weapons than use the default shit he's usually given, but Cerberus had some of the best weapons in their seemingly infinite arsenal. So he equipped the Cerberus M-13 Raptor for long range assassinations and combat, the Cerberus Harrier for situations where the enemy gets a little too close for a rifle, and the M-35B Talon as his sidearm for those special occasions. The com link in his helmet buzzed, but like usually he ignored it. Then again it sounded, a bit more impatiently this time, but he still ignored it; they never were really important when they called him. That was until the intercom linked to the entire base exploded with a familiar feminine voice, "Dammit Hades if you don't get to the hangar bay right now I'm going to rip your bloody head off!" He chuckled as he continued to leisurely stroll through the base, taking the long route. When he finally reached the hangar bay he was greeted by an immensely pissed off Miranda, "About damn time. Come on,we're 3 minutes behind schedule."

 _Two hours later..._

The ride was quiet for the most part, Miranda stared daggers into Castor for most of it. But still, Miranda had to break the silence, "Are you aware of the importance of this mission?" His head snapped to the sudden noise, "Not really, he wants me to be apart of some crew. Which reminds me, he of all people should know how well I play with others, so why would he order me to be apart of a crew?" He asked, hoping that he could trick Miranda into explaining the situation. Castor made it abundantly clear he was not a people person and did not like working with others. "That's classified, all you need to know is that the fate of humanity lies with this mission and there is no room for error." She stood up abruptly and made Castor's reflexes twitch with the sudden change, "You are to follow my orders to the letter, I tell you jump you ask how high. Got it?" Oh he didn't like that at all, he took his helmet off that masked his face and stared hatefully into her. "Not. Happening." Was his only response, both knew where this was gonna go so Miranda threw her pistol to the ground as Castor set his weapons to the side. "You are such a child." She said, his only response was sending a fist directly at her which was countered gracefully and sent him colliding with the walls of the small dropship. "Maybe if your brother was here, _**he'd**_ actually follow orders instead of being an immature brat!" Well that's definitely not what you say to Castor, ever. As he turned to her his once green piercing eyes were glowing orange from the implants in his brain, which meant he was pushing them into overtime. With uncanny speed he charged her and kicked her into the cockpit, when she hit the back seat of the pilot he turned, "Hey watch it! I got a bad leg as it is I don't need you two beating the shit out of each other!" Miranda looked up at him from the floor, "How much longer?" He turned to the console and pressed a few buttons, "20 minutes out ma'am." She sighed, this was going to be a long 20 minutes.

 _Later…._

Liara stared in disbelief; after what felt like ages she finally found her, or what was left of her. She could hardly believe it when Cerberus of all people asked her to do this and not some human archeologists. Albeit the team they sent didn't trust her, but at least she had a friendly drell to keep her company. Even though he was working for the shadow broker rather than her or Cerberus, but at least he didn't treat her with disdain. As usual she was lost in her own little world of thought and had not noticed the trooper at her door, so when she spoke all of Liara's items in her hands fell; making her already messy work area worse.

"Mrs. T'Soni. You're needed in the hangar, our commander wanted to meet you before we left with the _package."_ She scoffed, but rather than unleashing a torrent of expletives she gathered her things and headed out. Cerberus told her what their plan was, for the most part. In fact The Illusive Man himself contacted her and explained the situation, but she wasn't too sure if this _Lazarus Project_ would work like they said. Liara knew better than to trust a "terrorist organization" but this seemed like the only way to get her back, the galaxy needed her, Liara needed her. She was actually impressed how quickly Cerberus created an operational base on Alchera, seeing as how it was almost void of life and couldn't sustain any living creatures other than the Krogan, and even that's a big if.

In the hangar her ship was all ready to go to take her back to Illium. A part of her was glad to be going home, yet another part dreaded it. A small Cerberus drop ship came into the hangar and lightly landed in the middle of it,and as it did all the troopers and other scientists stood at attention as if to be apart of the Alliance Military. When the engines cut off she expected a small silence, but there wasn't. Sounds of struggling we're coming from inside, everyone looked confusingly at the one another, wondering what exactly was going on. Liara herself was concerned as to what was going on, so she decided to approach it cautiously. That was until the doors opened and what looked like a Cerberus trooper almost was flung out into the hangar, skipping along the hard metal surface a few times before rolling back up on his feet.

He landed only inches away from Liara, and the face she saw brought a gasp from her mouth, "P-Pollux?" She questioned, she felt as if that wasn't true however.

The same curly, dark brown hair, Caucasian human she remembered was present in front of her but at the same time he wasn't. His skin was more pale, his eyes were glowing bright orange, and his overall aura was primal almost. It was very evident that he had been fighting someone as there were cuts and bruises all over his face and the blood from his nose covered the front of his armor.

"No, you're not Pollux. Are you Castor, his brother?" She said shakily. She was only briefly told about her previous crew mate's brother, and what she was told only portrayed him as a bloodthirsty monster. He started to charge back towards the ship when he suddenly froze, he was probably fighting a biotic who just used stasis on him. Miranda stepped off the ship and leisurely walked over to both of them and introduced herself and Castor, she didn't have a scratch on her.

"So, where is it?" She asked, or more like ordered. " _ **She**_ is in the ship awaiting to be taken to the Lazarus facility." Miranda showed no emotion, Liara just continued to stare her down, and Castor was just waiting for the stasis to wear off so he could kill the bitch.

Miranda remembered that she had froze Castor in place and decided to use it to her advantage, "Ok, I won't leave you here on this god forsaken rock and show you why your mission is so important if you promise to behave. Trust me, the fate of humanity is at stake, I need you to follow orders for once."

The stasis wore off, but instead of charging her like wanted he stood there and calmly brought his breathing and heart beat back to normal levels. He couldn't attack her for multiple reasons and he wasn't stupid enough to charge her with over 20 troopers around and his cybernetic implants completely drained. He stared at her quietly and mockingly said, "Say please."

A smirk grew on his face as pure frustration took hold of Miranda's. "Please, Castor." His smirk shattered, the realization of how important this was hit him like a charging Krogan. She never said please, or anything like that, and for her to submit to such a stupid request like that was unheard of. He put on his helmet and nodded to her, Liara began to show them to the ship they would be taking to the Lazarus Project facility; both women were very good at keeping him in the dark about it on the way there. Inside the ship there were scientists all over the place, and they were swarming this glass coffin like thing in the middle of it. He walked over to it, it was a corpse, very badly burnt and disfigured. What threw him off the most was the letters "N7" faintly written on the armor and nearly scratched off.

"Who is this? What's Project Lazarus?" He asked; Liara shuffled uncomfortably, not sure whether or not to tell him because he acted so unpredictably. Miranda on the other hand was irritated and just went out with it. "That's Commander Jane Shepard of the Alliance Navy, and a Council Specter."

For once he couldn't think, his brain wasn't processing this, Miranda didn't miss a beat, "So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, " _Father, I thank you that you have heard me.I Knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me._ " When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, " _Lazarus, come out_!" Then Lazarus rose from the dead, and left his tomb." The confused crowd looked to her, she placed a hand on Castor's shoulder and stated loud enough for everyone to hear. "We're going to bring Shepard back. From the dead."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello and welcome back, sorry for the long wait but at least its 6,000ish words or so. It takes a lot of work to put these out especially when you but heads with your co-writer every waking moment of your life.**

 **P.S. For those of you who follow me as an author and are waiting for the Overwatch story don't panic, I am currently working on it. Just enjoy this one while I work okay?**

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 _About 2 years later_

The only time Pollux remembers waking up this sore was when he blew out his old biotic amp, but that was supposed to be expected out of the Interplanetary Combatives Training (ICT) program. He would push back the pain for now, today was a big day after all. Not everyone can be apart of the legendary N7's and most just weren't cut out for it; they were the best of the best after all, and in Pollux's eyes they were almost as good, if not better than, Specters. He pulled himself up from the stone slab that was his bed and eyed his 6X8 room for the last time and dressed himself, there really wasn't a ceremony or anything he would just go to the office where Admiral Hackett was and shake his hand and receive a certificate.

From what he knew of the N7's he would be on leave until his skills were needed and then he would be deployed, or be signed on to a crew like Shepard was on the Normandy. Even though the life of an N7 seemed uneventful, Pollux grew more excited with each passing second and before he knew it he was already on the elevator to Hackett's office. It stopped about halfway and someone else stepped on, after a small silence the man spoke up. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be Pollux Foster would you?" The man asked, he was dressed as a civilian and had dark skin with a small amount of facial hair, neatly trimmed just like the hair on his head so he assumed a military background. Or a rich fan. "The one and only." Pollux greeted warmly as he extended his hand, the man returned with a smile and shook it eagerly. "I'm Jacob, Jacob Taylor." The elevator ride was pleasant, they exchanged stories about previous missions (Pollux was right to assume a military background), talked about their biotics, and the N7 program. "So, you were stationed on the Normandy right?" A small pang of guilt and sadness resounded in his chest, but he reluctantly answered. "Yeah, I was. It was pretty great and Shepard was a good commander." Jacob intently listened, "It's a shame she died, but she saved a lot of lives that day." There was now an uncomfortable silence in the elevator, and a voice in the back of his head was telling him something was off. "Look, I'm actually here to offer you something." Jacob said, Pollux was uneasy to say the least but listened. Jacob took the silence as acceptance, "Ok, kill the elevator." He said into what was probably a subdermal communication link, immediately the elevator shutdown and the red emergency lights activated. Before he could talk however, Pollux was already charging his biotic amp. This new one that Liara and made was insanely powerful, but at a cost. He burned nearly 3 times as many calories and had to constantly watch how much power he used or possibly die due to strain. But still, it was pretty badass. The familiar sting in his neck slowly intensified as he pushed and pinned Jacob to the wall with his powers. "Woah calm down I just wanted to talk." Jacob strained, after a few seconds longer he was released. "Make it fast then." Pollux responded. He kept Jacob pinned to the wall to make sure that he couldn't attack him if he tried. "Just listen ok, I work for an organization that needs your help. If I tell you who, will you listen to me?" Jacob pleaded. His arms and legs were spread eagle on the wall of the elevator, staining to move. Pollux let him off of the wall, intrigued with this news. "Who do you work for?" He asked, still primed up and ready to strike at Jacob if he did anything that was suspicious. "I work for the group Cerberus. We are working on a project that requires your help." Pollux took a step back and reached towards his sword. "The terrorist organization?" He questioned. He didn't like Cerberus, the only run-ins he had with them ended in shooting, always with them performing illegal experiments or stealing something. They were also a reason that him and his brother do not see eye-to-eye, being that Castor was basically their top assassin. "Contradictory to popular beliefs, we serve to protect humanity. And right now humanity needs your help." Jacob made a convincing case, but Pollux didn't want to help a terrorist organization. No matter what Jacob tells him, they have done some pretty messed up stuff. "I'll think about it. Now let me go." Jacob nodded and the elevator sprang back to life.

He got off on the next floor, leaving Pollux by himself the rest of the ride. When he finally made it to the floor Admiral Hackett's office was, he noticed the Admiral peering out a window overlooking Earth. Pollux didn't get to see his homeworld often, but it looked beautiful to him. He entered the room and proceeded to stand at attention. "Admiral. Sorry it took so long." He stated, saluting. The Admiral turned and smiled a half smile, motioning him to stand at ease. He walked over to his desk and motioned Pollux to stand on the other side. "First off, Commander Foster, I want to thank you for your service on the Normandy. The loss of a good ship and crew was hard to take. I want to commend you for your service and graduation of the ICT program by inducting you into the special task force N7." He pulled out a contract-like paper and a pen. Pollux signed it and shook his and. "Welcome to the team." Admiral Hackett looked proud, but noticed that something bothered Pollux. "Something on your mind son?" Pollux looked at him, debating weather or not to reveal what was just asked of him, "Sir, a Cerberus operative just stopped me in the elevator on my way here. He said that they needed my help, but I'm not sure-," Hackett interrupted him abruptly, "Do it." Pollux was taken back, "Um, s-sir?" He stuttered. Hackett sat back down and motioned Pollux to do the same, "Cerberus has been a small thorn in my side for a while now, but no matter what the Illusive Man seems to be a step ahead of us. This is a chance for us to even the odds, if not get ahead. I want to to accept their offer and keep a very close eye on them, and report to me whenever something major happens." This whole idea made Pollux, uncomfortable to say the least. "But they're a group of anti-alien terrorists, whatever they have planned can't be good. How do you think it would look if an N7 all of a sudden joined up with them and helped them?" He retorted, but Admiral Hackett was not easily dissuaded. "This is going to be your first mission as an N7, your proving grounds per say. You will be recognized as an N7, but if you cause an intergalactic situation you're going to be on your own. We can't send you any help while you're out, you're going to have to rely on your training and instinct." He could feel the panic start to set in, Hackett could tell. "Please Pollux, the Alliance need you. Do it for us, for Shepard." He didn't like it, not even a little bit, but it's what Shepard would do. "You can count on me sir, I'll get it done." Hackett smiled through his old scarred face and stood, Pollux doing the same. They exchanged goodbyes and Pollux left to get one more goodnight sleep before he would have to sleep with one eye open working with a bunch of terrorists. His thoughts turned to Jacob, the man in the elevator, " _Maybe they're not all bad?"_ He questioned himself on the way back down. He'll find out sooner or later….

Jacob reached out to him in the evening on a secure channel, you could almost feel the joy in his words when Pollux agreed to work with them. He told him to meet him on the landing pad on top of the inn he was momentarily staying at, seeing how he really didn't want to sleep on that stone slab back at the ICT program. It was early, about 0500, but Pollux was used to it by now. When he was at the landing pad, Jacob was already waiting for him. He wasn't hiding who he was now, he was in a lightweight Cerberus operative uniform with the symbols clearly on the shoulders. "Ready to go?" He asked him while hanging out the side of the ship. Pollux hesitated for a moment, pulling uncomfortably at his grey leather jacket and looking back at the door.

"Hurry up Pollux, I got a card game waiting for me back at base!" A very familiar voice came from the small ship making his head snap back up to the sound. He saw a small man, with a brown beard and a hat covering his head, he slowly limped towards Pollux with a smile that was ear to ear. "Joker? Holy shit!" Pollux jogged over to him and hugged him, "Hey careful I'm fragile remember?" He laughed as Pollux apologized and eased up a bit, they all boarded the ship and left shortly after. "I suppose you want to know what's going on don't you?" Jacob asked as Pollux armored up, just as a precaution, that seemed to be one of the only things him and his brother could agree on. "Yeah that would be nice." He replied as he fastened his visor around the back of his head and ears, which matched his black N7 armor, which had a dark blue stripe down it instead of a red one most use. "Well here's what I'm authorized to tell you. We're taking you to a top secret facility where you will be placed in temporary command of the new Normandy crew." That definitely grabbed his attention, "What do you mean new crew? The Normandy is gone Jacob, I saw it get ripped to shreds and everyone on board get-," he stopped, it was happening again. The flashbacks, the panic in his chest, Pollux was plagued by nightmares and PTSD from the attack. After a small moment of Jacob trying to calm him down and some steady breathing he continued, "The Normandy is dead, no fixing that." Joker decided to pipe up from the cockpit, "That's what I said too, but trust me Pollux they want to help." Pollux was still unsure of that, and Jacob knew it. So the remainder of the ride was quiet, aside from Jacob talking to Joker about ships and the sound of Pollux sharpening his sword the old fashioned way with a stone.

After reaching the larger transport ship and traveling to the facility via mass relay they finally reached their destination, a massive facility with extremely large, robotic mechs patrolling everywhere. Jacob explained how there would have to be a tour later and showed him through hallway after hallway until finally reaching a door to a lab. "Alright, so here we are. I hope you're ready for this." Pollux raised a brow, "Ready for what? You still haven't told me what's going on here." Jacob sighed, "I'm not suppose to, but I feel that you need to know so you can trust us. Have you heard the story of Lazarus, from the Bible?" Pollux was familiar with it, so he let Jacob continue, "Here, we're working on the Lazarus project. Who we're bringing back is behind those doors. Let's go see how she's-" red lights began to flash and sirens started to sound throughout the entire base. "Shit!" Jacob yelled, an officer must have called him on his Omni tool because he immediately started to sprint down the hall. "Make sure she stays alive Pollux! Go!" He shouted, without hesitation he busted into the room, but was immediately stopped by what, no, _**who**_ was lying on the table. Shakily, Pollux said to himself, "Sh-Shepard?"

 _Shortly before the alarms…._

Miranda was ruthless, for the fourth time that day she effortlessly knocked Castor on his ass. Surprisingly enough the two actually became friends, in an odd sense. If you call screaming and beating the shit out of each other friendship. They spared whenever Miranda was available, but most of her time was taken by the Lazarus Project. Which amazed Castor, the progress they've made in past year have been the most any of them have ever seen and that was all due to Miranda. Even Wilson had to acknowledge how much she's accomplished, and he's a dick. Miranda extended her hand to Castor and picked him up from the gym floor. "You're definitely improving Castor, but you're too reckless. Have you ever considered anger management classes?" He gave a short laugh, "Why? So that I can listen to Jacob drone on and on about how my anger isn't "constructive" and I need an outlet?" She laughed in response, a bit louder than she anticipated. "Come on, I have a surprise coming in for you today." Castor's interests were definitely peaked, he suited back up in his full armor and equipped his sidearm. Wilson insisted that he not carry weapons on him since the mechs would be running security, but there was no way in hell that would be happening anytime soon. Castor could sense something was, off. He turned to see Miranda staring at him, "What?" He asked, she just shook her head and pushed past him and out of the gym. A scientist ran up and gave her a tablet with Shepard's vitals, all reading steadily and in the green. "Shepard should be ready to wake up in about a week. Then we can start to really get everything set in motion." She handed it back and scientist scurried off.

They walked in silence for a moment towards Shepard's wing, that was until she grabbed Castor and dragged him into an empty storage room. "What the fu-," he started. "Shut up. I think someone is trying to sabotage this project." She said in a hushed whisper, as if to be afraid that the storage room had ears. "What are you talking about?" He responded, not worried about anyone hearing him. She pushed herself off of him and gave them a bit more breathing room, "I've been watching Wilson closely the past month, and he's been acting more strangely than usual. A few days ago I saw him trying to login to one of the computers in the security sector, the only reason he could be doing that is to possibly override security or hack the mechs." He knew she could tell that behind that helmet he was skeptical, and he knew her and Wilson never really saw eye-to-eye on anything. "That's a little extreme don't you think?" Was the only thing he could respond with. She opened her mouth to respond, but all that came out was a siren, the base was on full alert. "Shit!" Was the first thing that came to mind for Castor, Miranda too but she decided not to voice her opinion and worry more about the project. "Jacob! Get down to maintenance and find a way to deactivate the Mechs! Keep the N7 with Shepard!" She yelled into her Omnitool. Castor was starting to regret not carrying any more firepower, not that he needed much to take out enemies it just made it all the more fun. "Then get to the emergency extraction point and grab us a ship we need to get Shepard out alive." Castor was starting to get annoyed, why would Wilson sabotage everything we've worked so hard for? "Ok calm down Miranda. You're the one being irrational this time. Why would Wilson-," she held a holovid in front of her. Showing Wilson down in Maintenance tampering with some of the computers. Castor looked closer to see an engineer come into the room, Wilson looked up at her and put his hands up to show he wasn't doing anything. But in the blink of an eye, he shot her, and continued working on the computer. "Proof enough?" He just stared in disbelief, "How did you get that?" "I told you, I was suspicious of him. Now come on, we need to stop anymore mechs from going haywire, and get Wilson." They both ran down the hall and headed for engineering.

 _Some time after the alarms…_

Castor and Miranda swept through the waves of the small security mechs with ease. They saw many bodies of dead Cerberus scientists and operators. Weak, Castor thought. He believed that the strong were all that should make it, a similar principle to what the Krogans do. It still made him furious that someone would sabotage this project. So much time and resources from some of the greatest minds in the galaxy spent their time trying to bring back Shepard, and for what? Why did Wilson want to be this stupid and mess with something that Miranda was running? As they walked a mech grabbed at his ankles, and Castor easily crushed its metal head underfoot. "How much longer till we get wherever it is we were going to again?" He complained, kicking the pieces of the mech further down the hall. "Shut up and quit complaining. Almost there, I saw Wilson heading to some doors, probably to escape. That terminal we found definitely showed he was tampering with the systems." Miranda was tracking his movements on her Omni-Tool.

They were almost on his position. That was, until, a YMIR Mech busted through the wall and grabbed Castor. His helmet's HUD spazzed out and failed to show him his shield strength as it pinned him to the wall and raised a turret at him, "Priority target acquired." It said in a low robotic voice, using his enhanced strength he managed to push out of the mech's hold and push him away. Enraged, he lunged directly at it but was pulled away by a biotic force causing him to roll along the ground till he corrected himself and stood. He snapped to Miranda, "What the hell Miranda?!" She just rolled her eyes and took his arm as she sprinted down the hall and through the door, she quickly activated the security door and locked it down. Castor was ready to go off on her but she quickly turned around and said, "Before you throw your tantrum, we do not have the necessary firepower to take on that mech." He was about to go off anyways, just before he saw movement behind her. In the blink of an eye he grabbed her and threw her behind him just as a smaller LOKI mech shot at her. The bullet hit him square in the side of his helmet, his shields should've taken the brunt of the attack but after that bigger attack by the YMIR they hadn't recharged fully. So the bullet got through, rocking him and making him fall to the floor. He was too dazed to see it but Miranda quickly dispatched the mech and shot to her feet, after quickly checking his vitals to see that he was alive she moved over to the nearby console. This wasn't where she needed to be, but she had to get Shepard out of her room and to the hangar. Good thing we brought another N7 here, she thought. After entering a few commands she got a hold on the intercom and started trying to evacuate everyone, then she turned it on in Shepard's room while pulling up security footage to see into it. There he was, standing completely awestruck in his black and blue N7 armor and a glowing visor across his eyes. "Foster." She said, he stood there, totally oblivious of the situation. "Pollux!" She shouted instead, nothing. Grabbing the bridge of her nose she let out a sigh, "well this is going to be harder than I thought."

…

"POLLUX GODDAMNIT SNAP OUT OF IT YOU PRAT," that shook him out of his trance. He looked around the room quickly and remembered where he was, but as he looked on the table he almost fell back into it. "Yeah I'm awake, who is this?" He asked the ceiling, "Doesn't matter right now, you need to get Shepard out of there. Wake her up and get her to the hangar bay, we're under attack, there's armor and a sidearm in the locker. Hurry!" Immediately he sprinted towards her while vaulting over various railings and surgical equipment. He stood at the side of the table she was on, thankfully she was breathing and showed evidence of REM sleep. He lightly shook her, nothing. He shook harder, still nothing. He shook her even harder while shouting her name, nothing."GODDAMN IT SHEPARD WAKE UP!" He shouted as he smacked her across the face. Almost instantly her eyes shot open, and she fully uppercutted Pollux and sent him sprawling to the ground making him wish he wore a helmet instead. As he slowly crawled back to his feet he felt an arm start to lift him back up. "Foster? What's going on?" She asked, "I'm not sure to be honest, but this facility is under attack and we need to get out of here. That locker in the corner has your armor and a sidearm, grab them and let's go." She quickly put on the armor and grabbed the pistol, "This gun doesn't have any ammo!" She grunted in frustration, Pollux handed her his sidearm and unsheathed his sword. Shepard wanted to protest, but knew he could handle himself well enough.

A door at the end of the room opened and some LOKI mechs poured in, both N7's shot to cover just in time to see a barrage of bullets fly through the room. "Pollux! Give me a barrier I'm going in!" Shepard shouted, ready to vault over her cover and destroy the bots. "No let me do it you just woke up. Stay down!" Pollux felt his amp begin to tingle as he projected a small barrier that clung to his form. He jumped over to cover and before touching the ground, used his biotics to propel him forward in an instant. As he landed, he swiftly decapitated a mech and kicked its head towards two others, which were stunned by the explosion of improvised projectile. He dashed behind on and stabbed it through its chest and impaled it to the other one kicking out of the doorway they came through. "Good job Pollux." Shepard came walking towards him patting him on the shoulder. "They were nothing. Come on we need to get out of here."

They began running down the hall as Shepard questioned him. "What are you doing here? And where am I?" "I'm not really sure where, but these people wanted to bring you back. I was here to help. If we find Jacob I think he can explain more." He told her. He stopped to open a door that had been jammed, and a LOKI mech came out the other side about to blow off his head. Shepard shot the mech in the nick of time making it recoil, in turn Pollux sliced its arm off while Shepard clotheslined it. She eyed her work with a smile, "Nice to finally stretch out the joints, how much farther?" "Shouldn't be too much further if I remember right." After a few moments of cautiously stalking through the narrow corridors they heard the mysterious lady again but the intercom was cutting in and out, "Shepard…. go to t….. don't." Then silence, "Looks like we're on our own. Come on." The finally reached a lift area at the end of the hallway, "I think we need to go down," Pollux said, after walking over to the lift he turned to see Shepard holding a gun, a very large gun, and a very large smile on her face. The doors at the end of the hall opened up to show a large patrol of mechs, but in the blink of an eye she shot out a grenade and decimated the group. "Holy shit! This thing is awesome! Wonder if I can upgrade it.." she laughed, sometimes Shepard worried Pollux every now and then. They took the lift down and ran through some flames and into an opened area where Pollux recognized Jacob huddled behind cover trying to fight off his attackers. "Pollux!" He shouted when he glanced over to them, as soon as he did he did a doubletake. "Shepard!? You're not suppose to be awake yet!" Instinctively Pollux threw a barrier on himself just as a couple bullets hit him, before he could retaliate Shepard pulled him down to cover next to Jacob. "I want answers! Where am I?" She questioned, "Yes of course! You're at a-" he was cut short by a hail of bullets barely missing his head. "Shit! Ok how about we take out those mechs huh? I'm a biotic so just point to whichever one you need me to use my powers on." A smile broke across her face as an idea came to mind. "Jacob give me your sidearm, when I say go you and Pollux use your powers to suspend them in the air. Got it?" she ordered, both of them complied with a "yes ma'am" and got ready to go. With two pistols in hand she yelled, "GO!" in sync both biotics used _pull_ and suspended two of the mechs in air, and in the blink of an eye Shepard put two bullets in their heads and dispatched the other few around them. "Ok let's go, it's probably best if we talk at the evac zone." Jacob said, both N7's nodded and followed him to engineering where they heard someone groaning in pain. They looked to see a man lying on the floor with a bullet in his leg and a dead woman off to the side, bullet to the head apparently.

"Wilson! What happened? Why are you down here?" Jacob questioned the man, only to receive glares and a snarl. "I got shot in the leg damn it! Get me some medi-gel it fucking hurts!" Shepard leaned down and inspected the wound, "What are you doing down here?" Pollux asked, something didn't feel right about this. Shepard walked over to the nearby first aid terminal and grabbed some medi-gel, "I came down here to see if I could fix what happened to the mechs but I got locked out, then shot." Shepard walked back to him, kneeling down to administer the medi-gel. "I remember you, from the first time I woke up." "Yeah, that was me. Can we talk about this after you're done fixing my leg?" Wilson finally was able to stand, and noticed the concerned, confused looks he was getting. "I came down here to shut down the mechs, but whoever did this completely fried the systems. Its irreversible." Jacob quickly snapped at him, "We didn't ask what you were doing. Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in the bio wing." Wilson held his hands up defensively. "Weren't you listening? I came here to fix this! Besides, I was shot. How do you explain that?" He began getting louder, and closer to Jacob's face. Shepard began to pipe up, "I don't trust any of you yet, so how about we get out of here, the assign blame where it's due?" Everyone nodded in agreement after a short pause.

"Ok, but we need to find Miranda. We can't leave her." Jacob said ashe was turning to leave. "Forget Miranda. She was in D-WIng, the place was crawling with mechs." Wilson looked skittish, Pollux stared at him, his brother told him how to notice signs that he was being lied to so he wouldn't get stabbed in the back. Sweat, rapid tapping of his fingers, looking everywhere as if he could get shot from any crevice. Then again, Castor was a paranoid psychopath. "A bunch mechs won't drop Miranda." Jacob defended. "Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her? For all we know, she could have been the one to set off the mechs." Shepard shook her head, "Then why did she warn us about the attack?" Pollux nodded, "Yeah, why are you so eager to throw the blame to her?" He quickly put his hands up in defense and said, "Okay, maybe she's not a traitor. But that doesn't change the facts. We're here and she's not. We need to save ourselves. The shuttle bay is only a few-" he was interrupted by a barrage of bullets, everyone shot to the floor and took cover. A bullet barely missed Pollux and gave him a gash in his cheek that he would have to ignore for now. "We can overload the canisters!" Wilson yelled, Pollux looked up to see the mechs were surrounding some containers that had flammable warnings all over them. Shepard nodded to him to use his tech abilities and clear the mechs, and with a wave of his Omni-Tool the containers exploded and sent the mechs flying off in pieces.

Jacob let out a sigh, "Ok we took em down but this is getting tense. Shepard, if I tell you who we work for will you trust me?" Wilson quickly strode over, "Now is not the time Jacob." Shepard held up her hand to quiet him, "Ok, tell me." Jacob sternly fixed his gaze at Shepard. "The Lazarus Project, the program that rebuilt you… it's funded and controlled by Cerberus." Shepard turned to Pollux after a small silence. "You knew about this?" He backed away, taking a slight defensive stance, "They said they could bring you back. I wanted to help." Shepard turned back to Jacob. "I've spent a fair share of my time as a specter taking down Cerberus projects. Back then they were trying to kill me. Why the change of heart?" Her malice was audible with every syllable. "Those answers are way above my pay-grade. Let's just say things change. The Alliance declared you dead. They gave up. Cerberus spent a fortune to bring you back. Look, I'd be suspicious too, but we need to work together. I thought you deserve to know." Shepard wouldn't turn to meet Pollux's eyes. Jacob began to turn to lead them down the hall. "I'll take you to the Illusive Man when this is over. He will explain everything." Shepard pushed past him. "I don't care about what you did or what you say, I'm not working with terrorists." She turned to Pollux before leaving, "I expected better from you." He didn't respond, he just internally told himself it was for the greater good.

The group had to adopt a light jog to keep up with Shepard as she tore through mechs. When they did finally reach the door to the evacuation area Wilson ran up to it and began to bypass the system, "C'mon, through here. We're almost at the-" when the door opened suddenly he paled. Pollux hasn't met her before but something told him this was Miranda staring daggers into Wilson, the way her cold calculative eyes scanned all of them in an instant. "Miranda! But you were-" with a draw speed that rivals Shepard she quickly put a bullet right between his eyes. "Dead? She asked sarcastically, Jacob ran over completely mortified. "What the hell are you doing!?" She coldly responded, "My job, Wilson betrayed us all." No one noticed how Shepard was holding her pistol to her head till she spoke up, "Even if you're sure, did he deserve that welcome?" Ever so expressionless she responded, "He sabotaged security systems, killed my staff, and he would've killed us." Jacob tried to play peacekeeper between the two and stepped up, "You sure about that, Miranda? We've known Wilson for years. What if you're wrong?"

Pollux felt a sharp stab in the back of his head, someone was coming. From behind Miranda a voice retorted, "Haven't you learned Jacob, Miranda is never wrong." A man came into view holding a bandage to a gash in the side of his skull, Shepard looked to him and had to double take at the other Cerberus operative. "Pollux, is that-" he was already charging his biotic amp. In the blink of an eye he used _charge_ and tackled him into a wall, and held him there by putting a sword against his throat. "What the hell are _**you**_ doing here?" He asked, venom dripping from his words. A smile slowly spread itself across his face as he responded, "Why little brother, I'm resurrecting your idol. Now be a good dog and let me down." Pollux increased the pressure on his brother's throat, but his smile never wavered. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you here and now." Castor chuckled, further aggravating his counterpart. "You don't have the balls to kill me, you're weak." Pollux was ready to end him then and there. However, the cold barrel of a pistol rested itself under his chin and activated. "Oh, and I'm always a step ahead of you." The two stared each other down for a few seconds, Castors beady dark orange eyes burning into Pollux stormy blue. Shepard snapped out of her stupor and ran over to them, not wanting to have anymore altercation she grabbed Pollux by the elbow and jabbed him in the side effectively disarming him and sending him to the ground. Castor took this opportunity to throw a punch at his now weakened brother, only to be countered by Shepard and smacked in the side of his head on his wound causing him to double over in pain. "Ok, I'm not in the mood to babysit you two! Get your shit together and meet me in the shuttle and I swear to God if either of you even breaths on the other I will beat you so senselessly you'll be eating through a straw. Now move!" She was clearly pissed and not happy with anything or anyone at the moment, so without hesitation both twins found themselves sitting on either side of the shuttle staring daggers into the other while everyone else quietly congregated around them. Shepard looked periodically to the twins while she answered Miranda's questions, she felt sorry for both of them. If this was going to work both of them would need to get passed their differences, she just didn't know how to do that. Out of all the problems she was facing, this might prove to be one of the most difficult.


End file.
